HOUSTON — One of the nation’s hottest congressional races is the battle to fill the empty seat of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who resigned in disgrace. Currently under indictment for money laundering, DeLay will not appear on the Texas 22nd Congressional District ballot in November. Remaining on the ballot are Democrat Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither.

The Toronto International Film Festival featured two impressive stories about music and the trials of surviving in the music world: the elegiac “The Violin” about an aged and humble violinist with one hand missing, and “Half Moon” about a man and his musical sons who travel a long and treacherous path to play in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Cuban exile and accused terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is back in the news. Posada is the admitted mastermind behind the bombing of a Cubana Airlines jet, which killed 73 people in a midair explosion over Barbados on Oct. 6, 1976.